WHO NEEDS A MEDIATOR?

by adam harbinson

An interesting email dropped into my Inbox the other day. It came from a man I have long respected; the author of the first book I ever read on the subject of spiritual warfare. Sadly it became the handbook of our odd little group in which we were taught that under every stone and behind every bush lurks a wicked demon.  

But now the man has written another book, the key phrase of which appears to be, ‘Follow those who follow Christ’. And I thought, d’you know what? That’s exactly the problem with much of religion, it’s the reason for all the divisions and splits in the church, it’s why there are so many denominations and sects and cults who all think they’re right – or at least a little bit more right than the others. Everybody is urged to follow the one they think is following Christ, and the result is that nobody follows Christ! And that’s the history of religion; an almost frantic scramble for a priest or a pastor, a mediator or a go-between. And the simplicity of the gospel is lost.

Most of us at some time in our lives end up in a stew, sometimes without a point of reference, maybe even without a moral compass. And what do we do? We thrash around in search of a way out, grasping at straws, sinking deeper into the mire or perhaps worse, shooting off in pursuit of another guru, another ‘fresh start’, and the still small voice is drowned out, the gentle voice that says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God’, the voice that pleads, ‘Come now, let us reason together…Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.’

Pathetic, isn’t it? The one whom we think is following Christ tells us we must pray harder, read our Daily Bible Notes, give more freely, go to more meetings, try harder to clean up our lives - while the true Christ waits in the wings trying to catch our attention.

‘I know! I know!’ says the impetuous young man. ‘But I’m in bit of a mess at the moment and I’m not sure which direction God wants me to go in, except that I know he wants me to go forward!’

But when you’re going round in circles, how can you be sure which way is forward?

‘Yes, yes I know that too, but if I can find a different church with a more compassionate pastor, meet new people, then I’ll be able to leave my past behind!’

It’s the familiar frantic scramble for a pastor, a go-between whose root lies in the fear of intimacy with God. And that’s what we have allowed religion to do to us. It has thrust a mediator; the ‘Lord’s anointed’, one who ‘knows better’ between the common man and his God, and we’re all the poorer as a result.

Pause a while. Listen; ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’ That’s the man to follow.